Today, I’m excited to talk about a game-changing feature preview in Dynamics 365 Project Operations: Copilot for time entry. This innovative tool is designed to streamline your time entry process, making it faster and more efficient.
The Problem with Time Entry
Remember the days when entering your work hours felt like pulling teeth? Navigating multiple pages, manually entering data, and ensuring no duplications was a chore. But, Dynamics 365 is here to change the game.
Meet Copilot
Copilot in Dynamics 365 Project Operations leverages AI to simplify time entries. Here's how it helps:
Smart Time Suggestions: Copilot suggests draft time entries based on your project task assignments. No more guessing or manually filling in hours.
Efficient Commenting: With a single interface, you can create and modify external comments, saving time and reducing errors.
Real World Use Cases
Let’s look at a couple of examples:
Consulting Firm
Scenario: A consulting firm with multiple ongoing client projects needed to streamline their time entry process. Each consultant spent significant time manually logging hours, which led to inconsistencies and administrative overhead.
Solution: By implementing Copilot, the firm reduced their time entry process by 50%. Copilot accurately suggested time entries based on consultants’ calendar events and project task assignments, ensuring that no entries were duplicated.
Impact: The firm saw improved time-tracking accuracy, reduced administrative work, and better utilization of consultants' billable hours.
Engineering Company
Scenario: An engineering company managing several large-scale projects faced challenges with accurate time tracking and billing. Project managers struggled with time entry errors, which impacted project costing and client billing.
Solution: Copilot’s ability to suggest draft time entries based on project assignments eliminated common errors. Project managers could easily review and confirm entries, ensuring they were accurate before submission.
Impact: The company experienced more accurate project billing, enhanced client satisfaction, and reduced time spent on administrative corrections.
Marketing Agency
Scenario: A marketing agency working on multiple campaigns needed to improve their time-tracking efficiency. Employees often forgot to log hours, leading to underreported billable time and revenue loss.
Solution: Copilot helped by automatically suggesting time entries based on employees’ task assignments and calendar schedules. It also prompted employees to log their time at the end of each day, ensuring completeness.
Impact: The agency saw a significant increase in logged hours, leading to better revenue capture and a clearer understanding of project costs and profitability.
Logging Time with Copilot
Logging time with Copilot is a breeze. Here’s how you do it:
Open the Time Entries page.
Select the Copilot icon to expand the Copilot sidecar and start a chat.
Type "Log my time" or "Create time entries" in the chat window and hit Enter.
Copilot scans your project assignments and suggests time entries, avoiding any duplicates.
Review and expand the suggestions for each project, then select Create entries.
Copilot will confirm the creation of entries and prompt you to refresh the time entry grid.
Refresh the grid and make any necessary modifications before submitting for approval.
Tips & Tricks
Here are some tips to get the most out of Copilot:
Regularly Review Draft Entries: Ensure the suggested entries align with your actual work.
Customize Comments: Tailor the generated comments to fit the project's specific needs.
Stay Updated: Keep an eye on updates and new features to continuously improve your workflow.
(Fake) User Testimonials
Early adopters have great things to say about Copilot:
“Copilot has transformed our time entry process. It’s intuitive and saves us so much time!” – Jane, Project Manager
“The smart suggestions are spot on. I can’t imagine going back to manual entries.” – Ben, Consultant
Here’s a dad joke to brighten your day:
There are only two things I don't eat for breakfast: Lunch and dinner.
For more details, check out the Microsoft Learn page.
Until next time,
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